


Happy Birthday to Who?

by your_trickster_god



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Fluff, Idiots in Love, Kissing, M/M, Mutual Pining, Other characters mentioned - Freeform, Past Relationship(s), Post-Avengers (2012), my first fic yay!, no beta we die like men, okay i'm done, pretend they all live in the tower happy and alive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:14:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25633402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/your_trickster_god/pseuds/your_trickster_god
Summary: By being Steve Rogers’ life-long best friend, and he thinks at some point more (but his mind still isn’t too reliable these days), Bucky Barnes knows a lot of things about him that no one else does. Some things people don’t know because no one cared or knew to ask, but other things are kept hidden by Steve himself. This was one of those things.In other words: Bucky and Steve (with some help) told the world Steve's birthday is the 4th of July, but is that really his birthday?*rated teen and up because of a few swear words just to be safe*
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Comments: 7
Kudos: 69





	Happy Birthday to Who?

Bucky woke up on December 16th knowing this day meant something, for some reason it was important. He lied in bed staring at the ceiling racking his brain and trying to trigger a memory. He was pretty sure this day had something to do with Steve, most of his happy memories had to do with Steve, but other times he got a glimpse of his sister, Becca, or his parents. However, he knew the thing that made this particular date special had nothing to do with them. After groaning in frustration he turned towards the huge window taking up the entirety of one of the walls of his bedroom; this used to put him on edge, but after learning they were all tinted and bulletproof (and checking himself) he was finally able to accept that he could actually sleep in this room instead of sitting awake waiting for an attack. The large window actually came in handy this morning because he could stare out at the city below without getting out of bed and having to face the cold. He lied there watching as the dark sky bled into beautiful, although muted, hues of orange and pink before finally settling on a cloudy gray. As the sun rose, it also provided a look at the snow-covered city below. All of a sudden he was transported back to a city so similar to the one he laid in now, yet so different that it might as well have been on the other side of the globe. He remembers being shaken awake by a tiny blonde with a smile on his face that lit up the entire room and made Bucky’s heart skip a beat.

_“Bucky! Bucky! Wake up, look outside, it’s snowing!” Still groggy from being awakened so suddenly it took a second to process the words just yelled in his face, but when his brain finally caught up, Bucky sat up quickly and ran to the window. True to blonde’s word it was snowing and pretty heavily at that, Bucky turned towards the small blonde still jumping around the room in excitement and said, “Well look at that Stevie, the first snow of the season, and right on your birthday of all days. Must be just for you, punk.”_

A car honking outside snapped Bucky back to his bed in Avengers Tower, finally having the reason for the fixation on this day and the answer to why it didn’t feel right to wish Steve a happy birthday on the 4th of July along with the ragtag crew Steve had grown to think of as family. Today, December 16th, was Steven Grant Rogers’ birthday. His real birthday, not the one that the two of them, along with the Commandos put jokingly on a form later given to Peggy so she could be in on it, not the one the Smithsonian cited, and not the one the world knew, but his real birthday that he and Bucky celebrated all those years ago. Turning back towards the ceiling Bucky asks, “JARVIS, where’s Steve right now?”

“It seems he is in the kitchen on the shared floor, Sergeant Barnes. Would you like me to request his presence or pass along a message?”

“That’s alright JARVIS, I’ll just go find him myself. Thank you though” Bucky responded.

“You are most welcome, Sergeant Barnes.” And with that Bucky got out of bed and made his way to the elevator to go find Steve. Despite the fact that he usually felt uncomfortable and out of place around the other residents of the tower, therefore staying out of sight, he made his way towards the kitchen undeterred because this was for Steve. If he had proven one thing throughout his life it’s that time and time again, he would do anything for Steve Rogers.

The ding signaling his arrival shook him from his thoughts and allowed him a chance to prepare himself to face the people he makes a habit of avoiding. The sight that greets him isn’t unusual of this hour, which he only knows because of the times he’s spied on the early morning rituals of Steve’s new team (he’s a little disappointed in Natalia for not noticing, to be honest). Sam, being the newest resident of the tower looks rightfully a little confused at the scene that surrounded him, but seemingly still too tired to say anything about it at the moment. Tony sits slumped in what Bucky assumes is a comfortable chair looking like he hasn’t slept at all, which is probably the case, with a huge cup of coffee. Bruce is at the counter with a cup of tea, while Thor sits beside him devouring a box of poptarts. The two assassins of the Avengers sit curled up together on the couch, and the punk he’s looking for is in the kitchen cooking breakfast for everyone, Bucky included. The whole Avengers team, except the super soldier, distracted with cooking, looks over at him with varying looks of confusion and curiosity on their faces. Bucky isn’t one to be around anyone other than Steve so freely, especially all of them together.

Not paying them any mind, he makes his way past them right into the kitchen and leans against the counter waiting for Steve’s attention. When the blonde turns around to grab something that must be on the counter behind Bucky he finally takes notice of the other person who has joined him in the kitchen. As soon as he does so he breaks out that same huge grin that left Bucky so breathless in his memory and just stares at Bucky with a dopey, love-struck smile on his face. “Mornin’ punk”, Bucky said slipping into his Brooklyn drawl, “do you know what day it is?” Bucky watched with amusement as Steve’s smiling, blushing face quickly paled into a look of panic. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, Buck,'' Steve said quickly, a little too quickly, he’d never been good at lying, especially to Bucky.

“Sure you don’t punk, doesn’t seem like you to forget your own b-mmfff” a hand flew to his mouth cutting off his words, belonging to said punk. Bucky just smirked under the palm covering his mouth and raised one eyebrow, the look on Steve’s face was not as smug, to say the least, his face was pale with panic offset by the pink blush gracing his cheeks.

By now they had the rest of the Avengers' attention, they had never seen Steve look so panicked, even on missions or fighting aliens he was usually calm and collected, the perfect soldier. Said perfect soldier was still blushing as he pinned the ex-assassin to the counter with a hand over his mouth. “What’s he talking about, Capsicle?” the resident billionaire genius asked, having perked up due to the coffee and commotion in the kitchen.

“Oh nothing Tony,” Steve responded, “nothing to worry about. Really nothing to see here.”

“Are you _sure_ about that, Steve?” Natasha asked, smirking while still curled up on the couch, “Barnes there seemed very adamant about something, why don’t you give him a chance to talk.” Bucky continued to smirk at Steve while the other Avengers talked watching as the Captain gulped in return, his bright blue eyes wide in alarm. He slowly removed his hand from the brunette’s mouth knowing he wasn’t going to get out of this and looked to Bucky to see what he would do next.

A number of scenarios raced through his head, but one he didn’t even dare to hope for was Bucky throwing himself into Steve, hugging him as tight as he dared. The blue-eyed Captain had tensed at the sudden movement but quickly melted into the embrace, happy to just hug Bucky. The former assassin used to be the more physical one out of the two of them, whether it was an arm slung over the tiny blond’s shoulder walking through the streets of Brooklyn or a tight hug after coming back from a mission alive, he always seemed to be touching Steve. Not wanting to cross any boundaries once Bucky came back and started to regain his memories he refrained from touching Bucky at all, worried it would set him off or make him uncomfortable knowing that any physical contact experienced for the last 70 years was to kill or be hurt.

The Avengers stood there, smug at first, but after a bit, they started to glance at each other awkwardly. Not wanting to stop their moment, but also wanting to know what was going on sooner than later. Eventually, Sam had enough and stepped in, “Okay that’s an unnecessary long hug,” he said sarcastically. The two men quickly parted realizing they still had an audience and all the Avengers watched in amusement as the flustered Captain blushed and mumbled: “Shut up, Sam.” Bucky’s face just slid back into his smirk and winked at Steve, causing a deeper blush, before turning to Sam,

“Well you see, Golden Boy here isn’t as honest as you all think.” All the Avengers looked to each other again, this time with confusion, and turned back to Bucky waiting for an explanation. Bucky looked back to the man in question, “Can I tell them, Stevie?”

As much as Bucky liked to mess with Steve, he never wanted to make him upset or uncomfortable. If he wanted to keep his actual birthday a secret Bucky would do that, no questions asked. However, Bucky knew this wasn’t a secret that was that big of a deal for Steve, the two of them, the Commandos, and with Peggy’s blessing, did it as a joke to laugh as the nation ate it up saying how this proved Steve was meant to be Captain America. Bucky always knew Steve was meant to be Captain America, his bite just matched his bark now, but the nation didn’t know that so he couldn’t be too mad at them for needing to cite other reasons to assure themselves Steve Rogers was the right man for the job.

As he expected, Steve nodded his head as he ducked to hide his blush and warm smile at the old nickname. Bucky turned back to the Avengers who were now looking at their leader with amusement as he blushed like a schoolgirl. “Uhhh sure Buck, it’s alright” Steve stuttered out. Bucky just slung an arm around his shoulders, that Steve in return relaxed into, and turned them so they were facing the team.

“Well, you all know how good and true Captain America here has that very patriotic birthday of his?” the crowd around them nodded, urging him to continue, “What if I told you the two of us and Commandos, put that on a form as a joke and it got way out of hand thanks to Peggy and Howard?” All the Avengers looked baffled as they stared at Bucky like he just told them pigs fly (which actually, after what they’ve seen wouldn’t be too surprising).

“Wait, wait, wait!” Clint said, breaking the silence, “You’re telling me that you two have been fucking with the American public since World War II?”

“Language,” Steve mumbled under his breath, Bucky flashed that lopsided grin at their inside joke. He looked so much like the boy Steve first fell in love with, all those years ago, that Steve felt his heart skip a beat.

“Uhhh yeah, it was fucking funny Barton. Everyone thought little Stevie over here was all goody-two-shoes, I can’t tell a lie golden boy so we figured they’d be easy to mess with.” Both Steve and Bucky chuckled at the looks of disbelief they got from the rest of the team and yet again, to no one’s surprise, Tony said breaking yet another silence, “Cap! Cap! He just said a bad language word!” Tony said pointing at Bucky, Steve just shrugged and replied, “Who do you think I got it from?” All the Avengers looked just as shocked at this revelation as the last one.

This time, it was Natasha that spoke first, she smirked at the two Brooklyn boys “Looks like good ol’ Steve Rogers over here isn’t as innocent as we thought, do we have you to blame for this, Barnes?” she said raising an eyebrow at Bucky, “Nah, Stevie was always a little shit all on his own, I just… helped. I mean at least I wasn’t the punk beating up guys twice my size in alleys.''

Steve spun to face Bucky, quickly becoming more confident than he’s been all day, “Hey jerk, you did plenty of stuff on your own, and someone needed to stand up and do the right thing. Those guys had it coming. '' Bucky sarcastically threw his hands up in surrender, “Hey, I’m not sayin’ they didn’t, I’m just sayin’ it didn’t always have to be you who did it. I mean, you were always coming home bloody, I worried Stevie.”

“I know you did”, Steve responded and then muttered quietly, “I’m sorry, Buck”.

“It’s alright punk, it’s all in the past now, plus you know I always stepped in to beat a good number of those fools”

“I had them on the ropes!”

“I know you did.” The two of them didn’t realize how close they got throughout their bickering and the Avengers exchanged amused glances as Bucky and Steve remained oblivious to the attention. “As much as I hate to break this up,'' Sam started, “but if it’s really really Steve’s birthday aren’t celebrations in order?”

* * *

Later that night, after the party that Tony somehow managed to put together in about an hour, Bucky went back to his and Steve’s floor to take a shower. When he came out of the shower, with a towel around his waist, he was greeted with Steve sitting on his bed. “Hey punk, what-cha doin’?” Bucky drawled,

“Uh, I’m.. um... just” Bucky jutted his hip out and smirked as he watched Steve blush and stutter over his words as he struggled to keep his eyes on Bucky’s face. “Spit it out, Stevie.”

Steve smiled down at his lap, still not over the return of his old nickname, “Um, I just wanted to thank you for my birthday today, I forgot how nice it was to actually celebrate my real birthday as Steve Rogers, not Captain America. So thank you, Buck.”

“Of course, Stevie. Anything for you, you know that.” Steve’s eyes snapped up to Bucky’s and his face broke out into that huge dopey grin that always made the brunette feel warm inside, he suddenly shot up and threw his arms around Bucky in a tight hug. Bucky tensed up at first at the sudden touch, but quickly relaxed into the arms around him and returned the embrace. Both men stayed like that for a while, both touch-starved after their years apart and flooded with years of feelings. After a while, Bucky worried because of how good Steve felt against his bare chest and he didn’t want it to get awkward fast, but the second he pulled away and saw tears in those bright blue eyes every protective instinct ingrained in his bones forced him to yank the blond back into his chest.

Steve happily curled back into his chest, he knew how much he missed and needed Bucky, but it was almost bittersweet to have him so close yet not know if he remembered being in love with Steve all those years ago. Steve knew he was still in love with Bucky, he never stopped and never would, the thought of those feelings not being returned this time was heart-wrenching. All these things were swirling through his brain became too much, and soon he was quietly sobbing into Bucky’s shoulder. When the former assassin realized he quickly pulled the blond away from his chest. “Hey, hey, what’s the matter, punk. You can’t be cryin’ on your birthday.”

“I think there’s a song about that actually, jerk,” Steve said, trying to lighten the mood. However, Bucky knew him enough to know he was trying to change the subject and didn’t fall for it, “I’m serious Steve, what’s goin’ on?”

Steve tensed in Bucky’s arms and took a step back, he looked down at his feet shyly and then glanced at Bucky. “How much of our life in Brooklyn and in the war do you remember?” after asking he looked up at Bucky with a hopeful yet broken look in his eyes. Bucky studied his face, looking for something, which made Steve fidget under his intense gaze.

Bucky must've found what he was looking for because he responded with, “Pretty sure I remember most of it Stevie.” Steve stared back at him with a hopeful yet resigned expression. He hoped that meant Bucky remembered the more than friendly aspect of their relationship, but didn’t want to push it in case he was wrong. However all his fears vanished when Bucky looked right into his eyes and said: “I love you, Stevie, I always have and always will.” Steve stared at him in shock at the blunt statement and soon tears began to well up in his eyes yet again.

“God, I love you so much Bucky, not knowing if you remembered killed me. I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you, I just didn't want to put too much pressure on you.”

“It’s okay punk I understand.” Bucky said with a fond look on his face as he reached out his flesh hand and cupped Steve’s cheek. Steve’s breath hitched as Bucky’s face inched closer and his eyes flicked down to his lips. Steve let his eyes slide shut as Bucky’s lips pressed against his own and he felt his stomach explode with happiness.

Kissing Bucky was like coming home, instantly all his sadness and anxiety washed away leaving utter contentment. Although, even super soldiers need to breathe so their lips eventually parted leaving the two staring at each other with matching smiles. “God sweetheart it has been way too long since I did that” Bucky said as he looked at Steve with love in his eyes. Steve blushed at the look and the old endearment, “You got that right Buck” he replied. Both men locked eyes, slowly leaned in again, and melted as their lips reconnected. They kissed for what seemed to be hours getting reacquainted with each other both feeling lighter than they had in years. This was definitely the best birthday Steve had ever had and not surprisingly, it was all because of Bucky.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic so please be gentile, but I would love to hear from you so feel free to leave a comment! I'm still upset about Endgame so this is a fic to cope with that. I think I saw a post that joked about the scenario that Steve's birthday wasn't the 4th of July so it might be inspired by that but I started this so long ago and just came back to it so I don't remember. Just don't come after me for stealing the idea if that post does exist lol.


End file.
